59th Report - Ministry of Justice follow-up: Autumn 2025

Select Committee
Public Accounts Committee HC 1240 7 January 2026
Report Status Government responded
Conclusions & Recommendations 27 items (16 recs)
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Government Response (AI assessment · 27 of 27 classified)
Accepted 12
Accepted in Part 1
Acknowledged 10
Deferred 4
Government response
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fifty-ninth report from Session 2024-26 · published 1 Apr 2026
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Recommendations & Conclusions

10 results
2 Recommendation Acknowledged
Require MoJ and HMPPS to set out detailed Dartmoor remediation plans and costs.
Recommendation
Despite closing the prison in August 2024, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and HMPPS still do not have clear plans for the future of Dartmoor. MoJ previously assured us that its aim was to remediate HMP Dartmoor and bring it … Read more
Government Response Summary
The government agrees that a decision on remediating Dartmoor has been made. However, the response is truncated and does not explicitly commit to providing the detailed assessment, cost estimates, or value-for-money analysis to the Committee as requested.
HM Treasury
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1 Conclusion Acknowledged
Committee reviewed HMP Dartmoor lease, legal aid provision, and LAA cyberattack management.
Conclusion
We took evidence from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) and the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) to follow up on our recent scrutiny of several topics. This included HMPPS’s management of the lease renewal at … Read more
Government Response Summary
The government acknowledges the committee's work and outlines lessons learned from the Dartmoor lease negotiations, including improved radon policies and embedding learning into future decision-making for estates projects.
HM Treasury
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7 Conclusion Acknowledged
HMPPS signed Dartmoor lease without full radon data due to prison capacity crisis.
Conclusion
HMPPS acknowledged that it would have been helpful to have more information on the density of radon at the Dartmoor site prior to the lease negotiations.11 However, it bizarrely maintained that signing the lease without undertaking a recent survey was … Read more
Government Response Summary
The government acknowledges it would have been beneficial to have a comprehensive understanding of radon presence before making a decision on the lease. HMPPS has improved radon policies, procedures, and training and are embedding learning from Dartmoor into future decision-making.
HM Treasury
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8 Conclusion Acknowledged
Empty HMP Dartmoor incurs £4 million annual fixed costs and £68 million fabric improvements.
Conclusion
Under the terms agreed HMPPS cannot terminate the new lease until after December 2033. The cost of the lease is £1.5 million a year, a slight increase on the £1.44 million it was paying when the lease expired in December … Read more
Government Response Summary
HMPPS has significantly improved and implemented updated radon policies and procedures, and training for employees, to ensure the effective management of radon and is embedding learning from Dartmoor into future decision-making, to ensure that any future contracts deliver value for money.
HM Treasury
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9 Conclusion Acknowledged
MoJ failed to negotiate stronger HMP Dartmoor lease exit clauses despite radon knowledge.
Conclusion
Given their knowledge that radon had previously been detected at the site, we asked MoJ and HMPPS why they had not negotiated an earlier exit term, or provisions to change the terms if radon levels were to increase so that … Read more
Government Response Summary
The government acknowledges it would have been beneficial to have a comprehensive understanding of radon presence before making a decision on the lease. HMPPS has improved radon policies, procedures, and training and are embedding learning from Dartmoor into future decision-making.
HM Treasury
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10 Conclusion Acknowledged
MoJ remains committed to remediating and reoccupying HMP Dartmoor despite radon challenges.
Conclusion
In our January 2025 session on prison estate capacity, MoJ stressed that it aimed to remediate HMP Dartmoor and bring it back into use if it could find a technical solution to radon issues at the site.19 MoJ reiterated that … Read more
Government Response Summary
The MoJ and HMPPS will write to the Committee once the proposed approach to remediating Dartmoor has been decided.
HM Treasury
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16 Recommendation Acknowledged
MoJ's understanding of wider legal aid reform costs remains disappointingly insufficient after a decade.
Recommendation
For a decade, this Committee and its predecessors have urged MoJ to get a better understanding of the wider costs of its legal aid reforms. A 2015 report noted the lack of analysis MoJ had undertaken of the wider impacts … Read more
Government Response Summary
The government agrees and states the department has written to the Committee, alongside the Treasury Minute response, setting out the results of its survey of local authorities and any further investigations planned.
HM Treasury
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18 Recommendation Acknowledged
Ministry of Justice lacks comprehensive understanding of legal aid reforms' impact on local authorities
Recommendation
We asked MoJ what work it had done to better understand the effects of its legal aid reforms on local authorities and their legal advice services. MoJ said that it has surveyed local authorities to understand where they were providing … Read more
Government Response Summary
The government agrees and states the department has written to the Committee, alongside the Treasury Minute response, setting out the results of its survey of local authorities and any further investigations planned.
HM Treasury
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25 Conclusion Acknowledged
Legal Aid Agency experienced significant delays in detecting and responding to cyberattack risks
Conclusion
We asked LAA why it had taken so long to detect the attack and to then take systems offline.48 LAA explained that the risk of a cyberattack on its systems had been rated as extremely high on MoJ’s risk registers … Read more
Government Response Summary
The Chief Executive of the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) set out the initial lessons learned at the Committee evidence session in October 2025, including the need for senior leaders to ensure that cyber-vulnerabilities are fully understood and business continuity plans cover a long period.
HM Treasury
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26 Conclusion Acknowledged
Legal Aid Agency acknowledges critical lessons learned from cyberattack response and provider burden
Conclusion
LAA acknowledged that contingency measures it put in place to keep the legal aid system going placed additional burdens on providers, and that there are several lessons to be learned from the attack. This included, ensuring senior leaders understand risks … Read more
Government Response Summary
The Chief Executive of the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) set out the initial lessons learned at the Committee evidence session in October 2025, including the need for senior leaders to ensure that cyber-vulnerabilities are fully understood and business continuity plans cover a long period.
HM Treasury
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